ALAN HUTTON is being asked to help save the job of the man who almost finished his career at Aston Villa.

Hutton, once unwanted by Paul Lambert, has become a key player in keeping impatient, angry Villa fans off the manager's back.

Darren Bent, who was banished with Hutton and Stephen Ireland to train with the kids for two years, says he will never play for Villa again while Lambert is in charge.

Hutton thought he was finished as well and was looking for a way out until the shock reprieve that sees him as an important figure in a new playing style.

The change to a passing game has not gone down well with Villa fans who chanted for Lambert to be sacked during the dire 1-0 FA Cup victory over Blackpool in the last home game.

Now they could stage a protest against Lambert in tomorrow's Villa Park fixture with Liverpool.

Three fans' groups have come together with a plan for the massive Holte End to remain empty for the first eight minutes of the game as a protest against Lambert and American owner Randy Lerner.

Lambert has got plenty of stick at away games, but the last home fixture was a significant stepping up of hostilities because it was the first time he had been barracked at Villa Park in his three years at the club. Hutton admits the players heard it.

"That came from fans expecting us, playing a Championship team in a Cup game, to go out and roll over them," he says.

"They were obviously upset. I understand where they are coming from, I do get it.

"You don't hear it when the game's being played because you are concentrating, but when the game's stopped for a free-kick or something you can hear what's going on."

Bent says he could stand it at Villa no longer and has got out on loan at Derby. Hutton was the same.

"I thought my time at Villa was done," he admits.

His last game for Villa before this season was the penultimate fixture of 2011-2012, a 1-1 home draw with Spurs.

I felt I had to prove myself

Alan Hutton

His next was a friendly away to Mansfield in July last year, 26 months of being on the outside and never getting a chance to look in.

Hutton, Ireland and Bent were the victims of the cost-cutting, Lerner wanting them and their big contracts out. Villa got through 88 games without Hutton.

"What was the worst time? All of it," says Hutton.

"You are watching the results on a Saturday, watching Match of the Day, and you are thinking, 'I could have helped there'. Saturday was the worst. I had to get out, go shopping, do something.

"If I had started upsetting people and causing trouble, being disruptive, it would only have affected me and solved nothing. There was no point in doing that.

"It's been a big change, from not being wanted to having a part in something totally new. Chalk and cheese, yes, that sums it up.

"I always talked with the manager, it was never like we didn't speak, but I felt I had to prove I was good enough to be here, get my head down.